thoughts for the next decade

it suddenly occurred to me - as part of the seasonal introspection - that i have been only writing more of 'reportages' than a diary!

so, this time, i am going to make it a real rambling!
that is also in line with the blog theme - ' random thoughts'..

in a way, things around me are the triggers for thoughts, so not having very profound things to say to myself or anyone else is fine, i guess.

rambling is actually very difficult. while it may seem random, there is some connection and flow.

like the picture above, the water, land, trees, mountains and the sky are all flowingly connected. it may not make sense to see or express this connection unless one is looking for a reason for them to be connected.

while i stopped making new year resolutions, and made it more of a monthly review of plans and priorities, the new year is a time to take stock of some medium to longer term plans and make them more short term.

the last year has been good in many ways. i look forward to even more in this year - which is also considered the beginning of the new decade.
that is something that am not fully convinced. when i had posed this question to some of the other group members - of a couple of groups that i am a member of, i got a few answers that the very 'first' year is year zero - as it is still not 1 year old!
i understand and agree with that argument. but still, only after 100 years are over, would it make a century!
similarly, year '00' cannot be the beginning of a new decade.
the media - or the greeting card makers - influence many of our traditions - and create new ones.
with more and more people using SMS to send greetings - apparently this new year, the number of SMS greetings was more than a Billion in India! - they also have to find newer ways of growing their revenues.

e-greetings are fine, and maybe more eco-friendly, but, you cannot paste them on your notice board! paper greetings were also a source of revenue for some of the charities - including UNICEF - that went to help many improvement projects across the world.

talking of improvement, one quote that i received in a -- hmm... new year greeting !! -- said:

'To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.'
simple, but very profound.

making a new decade resolution is better than a new year resolution because it makes you think bigger - on a larger scale.

move away from making wishes for yourself alone, to make wishes inclusive of others, and wish that there would be significant improvements in all our lives.
after all, we are in a very connected world.

in a recent retreat we had of some friends from another group that i am a member of - that delves into the topics related to understanding the human mind, we explored the power of 'the law of attraction'.
wishing strongly as a collective, can make things happen.

the most visible of this theorists, was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his theory of the creative intelligence and mass [transcendental] meditation, to improve the world.

to conclude, while I haven not yet understood why the new decade begins with 2010 and not 2011, I wish that all of us realize our dreams of good health and happiness with a comfortable lifestyle in a more peaceful, environmentally responsible world..


how is that for a one sentence wish that has various aspects connected!!

spaced out world

well, it finally happened.
in spite of the denials by the Indian arm, worldspace will shut down the india operations on 31 december.

as a radio enthusiast - from school days, as a short wave listener, and one of the early subscribers of the then free service, it is sad to hear of a radio station folding up..

the initial doubts on the sustainability of this service were somewhat addressed when worldspace went paid. at least there was a revenue stream.
when i saw that they were also promoting events, felt that this could be a route to exclusive content, that could be monetized.

not sure what went wrong. maybe there were too many channels started too quickly.
maybe the costs of sourcing music was high.
maybe the subscriber base was not growing. it was interesting to note that the tie up with airtel got them more subscribers recently than direct subscriptions.

i hope that someone else would be able to revive this wonderful service and enhance the USPs.

this adds to my list of new things to do in the new year.
maybe internet radio.

do you know of any good internet radio guides?

Night trek in the forest

this may also be called, thekkady, part 2!

i had the opportunity to take a night trek in the thekkady forest. it was a 3 hour trek in the jungle at night, with escorts.

with two escorts, one as the guide and the other with a rifle, it felt quite secure.
till we were deeper into the forest and almost cut off from the road and human sounds.

 

you can hear our footsteps also, if you listen closely.

we were asked to sign some declarations that we are doing this with full awareness of the dangers of the jungle and that we are solely responsible for anything that might happen to us etc etc etc - that increased the excitement.
While we were probably never too far from the roads, but the fact that the guards did not carry any radios made me feel a little insecure.
when asked,the guide said that they can always use the cell phone!
that was reassuring that were were not really out in the wilderness, but a region with cell tower visibility!

anyway, we saw mouse deer, barking deer, sambar deer, a fruit bat that was comfortable inside a hollow, a porcupine in a hurry etc.

the overall experience was very good, as every member of the trekking party - that was limited to 5 -  also had very powerful torches, with a warning that we shoudl be very careful and watch out for snakes etc.

the kerala tourism department with the foirest departmetn has set up many eco-tourism initiatives.
if you are interested in the activities in and around thekkady, you can visit their site.

Thekkady

Just back from a three day visit to thekkady, this post is mostly about the eco-tourism in kerala.
it was good to see that this sector, even within the government department [of forests], is getting organized.

we had taken a train to madurai and then traveled by road to thekkady. we had taken the day leisurely in madurai and by the time we got near thekkady, it was sunset time - a glimpse below..

this time, i wanted to capture most of the visit in a video, so do not have many pictures to share here,
this is a period after the monsoons, so the landscape was lush and green - with some traces of rain in places.
good period for trekking.
among the places we visited were - the chellarkoil, with views of tamilnadu and kerala and a steep waterfall. while on the cliff, one can see the vertical drop and the flat land below.
ramakalmedu, another spot with windmills, a huge statue of a couple as well as view points.

a day long safari-trek-boating in Gavi kept us busy.
a couple of waterfalls, with one at Kullar,  where one could go near the water and the thick forests provided good relief from the reasonably hot sun.

or the noisy rush of water along the road:

With all these lovely places, it was a pity that we could not go for the boat rides on periyar lake that have been stopped after the recent tragedy. we could only see the anchored boats.

but one very interesting experience, was a night trek along with the 'jungle patrol' - three hours long, in the jungle gave an opportunity to see more wildlife than during the treks and the jeep safari.
more on that the next time..

straight on the roads

one more post on road behavior..

soon after moving to bangalore - almost 20 years now - i had to depend on others to get directions to go from one place to another, as i was not familiar with the roads.

one lesson i learnt very soon was to not ask for directions when there was more than one person together.
the problem was that in bangalore, there are multiple routes to reach point B from point A. in many cases you have the option of choosing one of the many roads at a junction [more on that in a bit].

When there is more than one person, everyone will be very eager to help. and they can not easily agree what directions to give you. one would say - this is the shortest route, while another might say that another option would be the fastest and a third would say that for a two wheeler, it is better to go in a third road etc etc etc.
in all this, you and your question would become just incidental and each one would want to substantiate their position.

so, i try to find a single person - a shopkeeper, an auto driver or even a lone pedestrian, to ask for directions nowadays.

with multiple roads meeting at a junction - such as the south end cirlce, no two roads would align at a normal 'straight' angle - of 90 or 180 degree. while giving directions, one would say 'go straight' - leaving you wondering which is the straight road!

One view from the BTIS camera of the South End circle in Bangalore.
what takes the cake in getting directions is to figure out how one would take a turn at a dead end!
that is only till you figure out a dead end need not be a dead end, but a T-junction.

in an earlier post, i had mentioned that many road names need qualifiers. it is not just with road names.
recently, i was to meet someone visiting bangalore at the kumaraswamy layout bus stand,  - which was close to where he was staying.

after a lot of difficulty and figuring out the right turn to take  [as my directions were to go straight, when, in deed i needed to make a deep left - as most of the traffic flowed and not go by the geometric straight, which led me to a 'dead end'!], i got to know that there were TWO bus stands in kumaraswamy layout!

Road Names in bangalore

One of the many things that have intrigued and amused me about bangalore are the road names.

the fist such name that i head was 'double road'.
back when, this name represented the first 'double' or divided raod, aka KH Road - possibly the only such road then.
subsequently any divided road seems to be called a double road, with a prefix or suffix of the neighborhood, such as indiranagar double road or lalbagh double road..

another category of road names is also amusing - roads named by their width. 80-feet road or 100-feet road are common names. my first impression was that this was the length of the road! used to wonder why someone would want to name such short roads - till we moved our office to an 80-feet road.

recently i noticed a board for a road called Hosa road - or 'new' road. wonder how long this will stay unique or whether we will have more hosa roads with prefixes and suffixes.

one example of a possibility of running out of road names: i have heard of three roads - Hosur Road, Marigowda Road and Siddapura Road - all called Hosur Road!

Roadside temples ..2

i showed you the cluster of temples that are present at a intersection near my home in the last post.
how could these have developed?

the following sequence will provide you with one of the ways of how a roadside temple starts and grows..
first, pick a spot.

then, find a deity

make a shelter

make it more permanent

and make it an institution

now, you have not only created an organization, but also managed to grab a good area of public land with sufficient diversity in the Gods, that can start attracting devotees.

not all roadside temples would have had such ulterior motives.

it could well have been a way to increase public awareness and acceptable social behavior of not littering..
as in this case!

the presence of many God pictures do not seem to have had any effect on the littering of garbage around!